In Season

Did you know we're smack dab in the middle of National Grapefruit Month? Yes, it's a wonderful time of year, when this slightly bitter (in all the right ways) citrus fruit is at its peak. We can't ignore the abundance of grapefruit all around us, so we want to celebrate it in full force! We're planning to mix up some grapefruit cocktails, find out what your favorite methods of enjoying ruby reds are, and more.

We invite you to share your favorite grapefruit photos and recipes in our YumSugar Community or by using the hashtag #savorysight on Instagram.

Source: Flickr User sewm

Turnips are one of those Winter root vegetables that get little love but can be a truly delicious addition to your next meal. There's little information about their original cultivation, but we do know that back in ancient Rome Pliny the Elder considered the turnip to be one of the most important vegetables of his day. Today, lots of families in the South love stewing up the turnip vegetable or its greens for a warming supper.

If you've never been exposed to cooking turnips, these guys can be a little tricky to choose. To learn more about the cute little turnip, just keep reading.

You eat carrots regularly — but how much do you know about them? Although they can be grown year-round, all root vegetables thrive during the Winter season, protected from cooler temperatures by the earth. Carrots are known for their vibrant orange color, but there are also purple, red, yellow, and white varieties — mostly grown as novelty crops. The root itself is crunchy and sweet, while the leafy greens tend to be on the bitter side.

To learn more about carrots and discover new dishes, just keep reading

We love any opportunity to taste test new and exciting products, and trying a new kind of apple was particularly exciting. The Junami apple comes from Switzerland originally and its standout characteristic is its juice. The apple is large, round, and brightly colored — definitely something you can't wait to sink your teeth into. Find out what we thought of the Junami apple when you keep reading.

Leafy greens are all the rage these days. Sure, they're chock-full of nutrients and vitamins, but they're also delicious. Collard greens are no exception. The mildly smoky flavor in the this Southern vegetable staple is great for cooking. Collard greens come from the same species as cabbage and broccoli, but like kale, this vegetable doesn't form a head. The leaves are dark blue-green and smooth, and they're a great source of vitamin C and fiber.

Collard greens are a very important part of Southern cuisine, often prepared with smoked ham hock. Since the leaves resemble folded money, traditionally, they are enjoyed with black-eyed peas for good fortune on New Year's Day. But the South isn't the only place that appreciates this cruciferous vegetable. Portuguese cuisine makes great use of collard greens. Popular soup Caldo verde, meaning "green broth" in Portuguese, employs collard greens as a base. In addition, the juice of pressed leaves is thought to alleviate several maladies, including bronchitis!

For more ways to eat up your collard greens, keep reading.

A close relative of the carrot, who gets way less love, is the parsnip. Since ancient times, these vegetables have been cooked up and enjoyed, but for some reason in the US, most of us choose to pass the parsnip by without a second glance. Once cooked, the flavor of a parsnip is surprisingly sweet and buttery. It's starchy nature makes it a lighter stand-in for the potato, or a welcome ingredient to a standard root vegetable medley. Interested in learning more about cooking with this underutilized yet delicious vegetable? Just keep reading.

Celeriac's one of those vegetables that used to intimidate me in the produce section of the grocery store. But as it turns out, the vegetable, also known as celery root and knob celery, is nothing more than a celery plant grown for its root rather than its stems and leaves.

Originally, this root vegetable was grown in Northern Europe and around the Mediterranean; it's historically been less prevalent in the United States. Be on the lookout for it during the Fall and Winter months in specialty grocery stores, and select roots with greens that are fresh and not wilted. Alternatively, you can purchase celery seeds and grow it yourself; at home, you can remove the stalks and store in the refrigerator for one or two weeks. For ideas on how to cook with celeriac, keep reading.

All Winter long, I've been on a relentless hunt for Vacherin Mont d'Or, the oozy, ripe cheese that's made from the Winter milk of Swiss Gruyère cows. But it soon became clear to me that it wouldn't be so easy to track down a version of the alpine cheese in tip-top shape; when I asked cheese fanatics for advice over Twitter, many of them urged me to try American alternatives.

A quick trip to San Francisco's Cowgirl Creamery cheese shop led me to Harbison, a similar cheese produced by Cellars at Jasper Hill, a creamery based in idyllic Greensboro, VT. Much like Vacherin, Harbison is a wintertime-only cheese with a blooming rind and an extremely soft center; like its French counterpart, Harbison is also meant to be eaten by slicing off the top rind of the cheese wheel, then dipping in with crackers, bread, and other accoutrements.For the holidays, I went with another traditional Vacherin preparation by dotting my Harbison with garlic cloves, adding a couple of glugs of dry white wine, and then baking the cheese until runny. I served it with squares of salami and tiny gherkins for dipping, and the experience was not unlike that of an Alpine raclette. Who knew such a French experience could be replicated with American cheese?